Dedicated to the obscure singles and lesser known bands of the rock era. Somebody's gotta do it.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Top Ten Of The Week: That Classic Rock Feel

Motown loses another producer/songwriter: Deke Richards who wrote hit songs for The Jackson 5 under the banner of The CorporationTM and later went on to produce Duke And The Drivers died of cancer. He was 68

KFMH, the infamous 99 plus is back up and running again on Net Radio. Really wished they had something out there for me to listen to this while working but you can catch them at this link: http://www.99pluskfmh.com/

You may stripped me of my rights photo here got blacked out from a email from one of you that told me about it. So basically the picture got censored here but you can see it all from this website. Let me know who this girl is, the one with the glasses behind her. I would like to marry her, betcha she'd be a lotta fun ;-) http://joyreactor.com/post/467029

Since the ground hog lied about an early spring and we been socked with 6 snowstorms this month, there was no bargain hunts anywhere else but in town. While checking cheap flights to Arizona, Allegiant which promised 83 dollar fares to Mesa, ends up padding the bill with a outrageous 50 dollar baggage fee, a seat fee charging from 12 to 20 dollars and more fees for boarding first. Turns out figuring out the summer AZ trip would run about 688 dollars which was 150 dollars more than last year. A plan B may be in the offering but this fee crap is really sucking us dry.

And the world still miss Keith Moon.

The Top Ten:

1. When The Time Comes-The Sand Rubies 1989 Tucson's beloved native sons, known as The Sidewinders and made two albums for Mammoth/RCA before dropped and being sued by a GD top forty cover band to which they changed over to Sand Rubies. Bruce at the pawnshop loves them to death and so do I to a certain extent. They have reunited from time to time but the albums they have made have been a bit less and less enjoyable Return Of The Living Dead a very good album but the much harder to find covers album Release The Hounds and mas' cuacha spotty. I like to smack David Shutes' butchering of Neil Young's Rocking In The Free World but they do a good cover of this Tom Petty classic, to which you can find on You're Gonna Get It.

2. Roll Over Lay Down-Status Quo 1974 Tournament time in the NCAA's mean great basketball but it also gives us more pain in the ass commercials and they're getting more and more dumber. If insurance companies would give such care and dedication for their commercials as they did to people wouldn't that be great. And I wish a deranged bus driver would take out the Subway eating dufus riding a bike on those Italian Beef plug (5 Dollar Footlong this Mutherfucker). Doesn't mean I noticed certain songs and on a Blackberry spot I heard a song that kinda reminded me of this hard rocking classic from the Quo, whose original fearsome foursome lineup gotten back together to play some one off gigs. Never quite figure out why the US never gave the Quo that much love although the UK folks came out in droves to see them play.

3. Loving Cup-The Rolling Stones 1972 Exile On Main Street is the Stone's all time classic but when they took their masters over to Universal, the mix was pumped up to ten and although I noticed a few more differences on the songs there's a brightness and loudness that damn near makes this unlistenable at times. It also means I won't be giving up my CBS CD anytime soon but may put this UMe version for sale. This was the Stones last great classic before they became predictable but in their coke and drug induced glory they did reinvent themselves for a record that may have played a role in Americana too.

4. Everything I Own-The Remingtons 1993 One thing about Bread is that even though they get lambasted and poo pooed by the hip young zitheads at Pitchfork that David Gates' songs have aged a lot better than My Chemical Romance or Smash Mouth or whoever is hogging the autotuner. Not a big Bread fan but I do have The Best Of Bread and On The Waters, which I think is their best studio album but can't find a decent cd of that album for the life of me. David Gates would become a country star although his records didn't sell a tenth of Bread sales and James Griffin, who was probably the more rocker of the band would follow suit into the country band field by hooking up with two other dudes to form The Remingtons who made two decent albums for BNA. And this cover of a big Bread hit, which pales to the original (they all do) but it's still good.

5. T B Sheets-Van Morrison 1967 No way avoiding Brown Eyed Girl if you want to hear this although that big hit, still catchy has been annoying on the radio since radio is playing it somewhere in the airwaves. Van had his eye on other things when he came up with this moody little number which hints at the next big thing, Astral Weeks an album that Rolling Stone considers one of the top ten albums ever. It's good but it's never been my favorite Van Morrison, (my vote: Moondance). Even though Van had one eye on the radio, his other eye was on improvisation and he could do both quite well.

6. The Mule-Deep Purple 1971 Upon playing Song Pop in Facebook, I got this wrong simply of the fact that the idiots there put down the wrong song Fools whereas the sound bit was The Mule. It's a very noisy track even with Deep Purple standards although the Made In Japan version was that 20 minute Ian Paice drum solo (seems like it) that Ian Gillan must have needed to go take a dump for it to be that long. Sushi can do that to ya. BTW, new Deep Purple next month, called Now What?! Maybe somebody will have it.

7. Magnum Opus-Kansas 1976 Leftoverture is one of those albums that defined a band, where else can you hear Carry On My Wayward Son for an album opener, still a killer cut, still overplayed on classic rock radio, hated by many, loved by few but I always thought What's On My Mind was a better song on the radio although that one bombed. Plenty of FM cuts like Miracles Out Of Nowhere and this final selection which defines Kansas for who they are, prog rockers and perhaps the only song, with a couple selections dedicated to gnats, the state bug of Kansas although I believe Iowa is a close second. Ain't seen no gnats yet, we still have snow on the ground.

8. Civilisation-Richard & Linda Thompson 1979 The best husband and wife combination in rock history before it all crashed down a few years later Linda always seem to got the best out of Richard's songwriting although Sunnyvista sold squat and came after they split with Island Records. The most pop sounding album, it was even hard to find when it came out on CD. Seems to be a concept album of sorts.

9. Shake The House Down-Molly Hatchet 1990 Danny Joe Brown was the spirit and voice of The Hatchet although I still have a soft spot for the soulful Jimmy Farrar when he took over for Beating The Odds and Take No Prisoners but The Danny Joe Brown band made a killer 1981 album for Epic and then Danny Joe return to the fold and brought with him John Gavin and the dreaded Bobby Ingram with him. Terry Manning turned them into ZZ Top wannabes with The Deed Is Done, an album that I still like a lot to this day and perhaps the loudest drum sound ever recorded but by then, nobody cared that much and a move to Capitol and the forgotten Lightning Strikes Twice didn't help things. Next year found them recording two new songs to Molly Hatchet Greatest Hits and really they do rock but it would be the last time we would ever hear from Molly Hatchet's lineup of the early 70s. In the end, Danny Joe Brown and Ingram started up sessions for Devil's Canyon, the last good MH album but Brown took ill and Ingram replaced him with Phil McCormick, a dead ringer soundalike to DJ Brown. Dave Hlubek remains the sole original member left while this band comes to a nearest casino near you. Above photo shows the 1983 version of band featuring Barry Borden (formerly of Mother's Finest, later of Marshall Tucker Band) on drums, and Riff West next to DJ Brown.

10. Keep A Knockin-Mott The Hoople 1971 I still like the dirty rock and roll sound of the Guy Stevens era over the glam Bowie All The Young Dudes period although that album is rock and roll classic, makes you wonder what happened had Stevens taken over. Their Island/Atlantic albums remains rock and roll spirit and you can consider them to be punks as well, you never knew where Ian Hunter was going to lead them. The only live song that survived (it was supposed to be a live album called Wildlife but was scrapped) Andy Johns recorded them with plenty of distortion and overdrive and this has concluded a few of my late nite rock and roll party in the streets. Found a bootleg 2 CD live Mott that had a different version then the Sept 1970 concert, but no liner notes where at. (Philadelphia maybe). http://ianhunter.com/main/news

DEAR JERRY: One of the history channels ran a show about
famous lynchings, including a segment on Tom Dula, who the Kingston Trio
immortalized as "Tom Dooley."

Apparently there was insufficient evidence to convict Tom of killing his
sweetheart, but he was neither the first nor the last whose innocence
would not be determined until after the execution.

Seemed like a big story, so why did it take nearly 100 years for someone to make a record about it?
—Terry Lombard, York, Pa.

DEAR TERRY: A big story indeed, probably the O.J. trial of its day, minus Court TV.

What is known is Dula's pregnant fiancée, Laura Foster, was stabbed to
death in Wilkes County, N.C., in May 1866. As to the killer's identity,
the truth may never be known.

Reportedly, more evidence pointed to Ann Melton, Dula's "other woman,"
than to himself. Tom maintained his innocence without implicating
Melton, right up to moments before he swung from the gallows (May 1,
1868).

Col. James Grayson did assist in the capture of Dula, but the third
corner of that "eternal triangle" was Ann Melton, not Grayson.

Ironically, James Grayson's nephew, Gilliam B. Grayson, a singer and
fiddler, wrote the first song about "Tom Dooley" (changed from Dula) in
September 1929. He teamed with guitarist Henry Whitter, and, performing
as Grayson and Whitter, they recorded G.B.'s tune (Victor V-40325).

From this original, the Kingston Trio retained the "hang your head, Tom
Dooley, hang your head and cry, you know you're bound to die," refrain.

They also kept G.B.'s nod to his uncle James, so both versions include "hadn't a been for Grayson, I'd be in Tennessee."

Ninety years later, and allowing for a conviction loaded with reasonable
doubt, the Trio omitted accusatory references such as "ya killed poor
Laura Foster … you took her on the hillside and there you took her
life."

To this day, an official marker stands near the execution site, placed
by the United States Department of the Interior - National Park Service.
It reads: "The song ["Tom Dooley"] did not reveal the other woman [Ann
Melton], who may have done the deed."